Today's Providence Journal reports, "Faceoff looms over suspect." It's written by Katie Mulvaney.
U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha’s office moved Monday to secure a court order requiring the state turn over an accused bank robber and murderer to federal authorities so he could face trial — and possibly the death penalty — for his alleged crimes.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Adi Goldstein petitioned U.S. District Court for a writ of habeas corpus demanding that the state place Jason W. Pleau in federal custody so he can be tried for conspiring with a Massachusetts couple to rob and murder a gas station manager as he went to make a bank deposit in September.
The prosecutor’s request comes days after Governor [Lincoln] Chafee refused to hand Pleau over to the federal government. To do so would go against Rhode Island’s longstanding rejection of capital punishment, Chafee said.
Hours before the petition was even filed, Pleau’s lawyers called on Judge William E. Smith to reject it. Short of that, David P. Hoose and Robert B. Mann, Pleau’s lawyers, requested a hearing.
And:
Chafee said his decision to refuse to place Pleau in federal custody was motivated, in part, by Pleau’s lawyers’ representations that he is willing to plead guilty to murder and robbery in state court in exchange for life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Also:
The Rhode Island Council of Churches and the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, joined a half-dozen other groups in praising Chafee and urging Neronha to stop any efforts to seek the death penalty against Pleau.
“The governor’s courageous action reflects and renews this proud heritage. In saying this, we do not in any way seek to minimize the tragedy that David Main’s family has suffered. But we cannot condone the federal government’s blatant effort to impose on our state a policy that Rhode Island has rejected for more than a century-and-a-half,” the groups wrote.
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